LibraryThing allows book lovers to catalog their collections for free, well almost. Two hundred books are free, after that, the cost is $25 for all the books you can catalog during your lifetime. Where does Librarything get its information? It gets some information from Amazon, but imports MARC records from over 680 library resources including library of congress and many academic libraries both in the US and around the world. It is not difficult to find the correct edition of the resource you are looking for, but if you cannot find it, you can add your resource manually. Otherwise, adding a resource to your library is as easy as clicking on the record once it is located. Records can also be imported from the catalogs of other members. Once you add your books, you can tag them any way that makes sense to you.
If the need to catalog your books at home is not compelling to you, and I admit, as much as I like the idea of an organized life, spending my free time cataloging, no matter how easy it is, kinda makes me twitch, Librarything is still a really cool website. It has some fun social features that made me take notice and made me lose track of time too. There are many different categories with suggested books to browse through. There is a feature that recommends books similar to those in your catalog and another that shows you libraries similar to yours. You can leave comments for other members and join book groups in every kind of category from young mothers reading children’s books to a “pub group” to political activist groups to fantasy readers groups. There were so many groups to choose from, that if I joined them all, I would be reading 24/7, which would be bliss. There are forums in which people post questions or topics for discussion. These are particularly good areas to ask for reading recommendations or for opinions on books. The topics covered in the forums range from Plato to Agatha Christie. Another interesting thing: you can sign up to be a reviewer of new books. You receive advance copies of new books to read and review – how cool is that?
Librarything has so many opportunities to make connections with other people who like to read. You never again have to ask the question what should I read next?
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
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5 comments:
I had never used LibraryThing before today and I agree that it is a cool site. I also agree that I do NOT feel compelled to catalog what books I do have.
I really liked the idea, like you said, of previewing books before they are published and writing reviews for others to read. That really struck me when I was browsing the site. I also browsed some of the groups and some of the titles. I liked the "if you read this, you might like this..." idea, too!
Based on this review, I would definitely try LT out if I weren't familiar with it. I think the incorporation of real library cataloging info is a huge plus. (disclaimer: I have an LT account, sadly underused)
I, alas, AM the sort of person who catalogs books for fun and have a database on my laptop for that. Lately, there's just not enough time in the day for that sort of thing.
LOL at your post title. Does that make you Morticia?
I forgot to answer Steve's question...would I use this from your review? Yes, I would!
Laura, your "review" definitely made me want to check out (and maybe even use when I finally have some free time again some day) LibraryThing! (You're so lol funny...you should write real reviews regularly!) I like the idea of being able to see how books are cataloged (and can see that being a helpful thing for school librarians who actually have to catalog their own books!) I like all the readers' advisory features you mentioned too.
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